167 cold, 3.5 Forum

[ghostmonkey]

Scored 167 on June '11 with no prep. I have a 3.49 after junior year, which would be at least over 3.5 and possibly even 3.6 if I waited until after senior year. I want to be in Boston and plan to apply to BC, BU, Northeastern and Suffolk. Should I be:

1) Applying in the fall?
2) Applying in the fall and retaking in October with more preparation?
or
3) Waiting for the slightly higher GPA next year and retaking the LSAT in the interim?

Thoughts appreciated!

[littlebit]

Why wouldn't you prep and retake? It would mean better chances everywhere and most importantly $$$$.

[TTH]

3.5/167 is going to be on the cusp for BC/BU. I'd say you probably get admitted, but you'd definitely pay sticker and maybe have to ride out a waitlist.

Retake in the fall with some prep and reapply. I think rigorous prep typically adds around 5 or so points to a score (outliers go in both ways), and you'd be fine for BC/BU with a 3.5/168+, probably with money.

[scammedhard]

Apply to law school only after you have maxed out on the LSAT so you can get the best possible deal. If that's in Oct, fine; if that's next year, fine as well.

[Tiago Splitter]

Work and life experience is never a bad idea, and waiting an extra year will allow you to get your GPA up as high as possible. 3.6/170 gets BC/BU with decent money.

[loblaw]

I don't know how far along you are in your studies, but it's hard to improve your GPA by any significant margin late in the game. Study hard, apply this fall, October retake.

[cinephile]

I say wait until next year to apply. Every situation is different (and who knows how medians might change next year), but 3.6/167 worked out great for me at BU with $. Of course, you could retake in October and wait until next year to maximize your chances.

Also, don't apply to Suffolk.

[robotclubmember]

i'm pretty sure that if you got a 172, you'd get at least $50K more in scholarship money than with a 167. can someone confirm/disconfirm that? and that's a conservative estimate. at least $50K. with a 167 cold, let's assume that it takes 200 hours of prep to get to a 172. that should at least get you a 172.

in reality, 172 over 167 would prob get you more than just $50K money, and you could prob reach it with less than 200 hours study if your cold was 167. so these estimates are very conservative.

even then, that 200 hours of work would yield $50K of direct benefit. $50,000 / 200 hours is $250/hour. based off of conservative estimates. i ran the numbers before and after my prep (i'm a CPA lol) and estimate that every hour of prep generated at least $300 of direct and tangible benefit for myself.

so the question is, how fucking lazy are you that you're turning down a form of work that pays you $250 an hour, at least? seriously??? is u 4 realz brah??????

[ghostmonkey]

Yeah, I had pretty much figured that this was retake territory. I guess what I'm really trying to figure out is how much difference the small GPA boost/senior honors thesis/extended work experience could make as opposed to applying this year. Thanks for everyone's help.